This description relates to mapping entities in data models.
In information systems, data models are used to describe data requirements, types of data and data computations that, for example, are being processed or stored in a database. Data models include entities and relationships between the entities defined by one or more schemas. In general, entities are abstractions of items in an information domain that are capable of independent existence or can be uniquely identified. Relationships capture how two or more entities may be related to one another. For example, while relationships can be thought of as being verbs, entities can be thought of as being nouns. A schema represents a particular collection of entities and relationships among them.
Complex computations involving data associated with data models can be performed using various database operations such as join or aggregation (or “rollup”) operations. These computations can be expressed as a data flow through a directed graph, with components of the computation being associated with the vertices of the graph and data flows between the components corresponding to links (arcs, edges) of the graph. A system that implements such graph-based computations is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,966,072, EXECUTING COMPUTATIONS EXPRESSED AS GRAPHS.